Vital and strong

Gerja,Elsendorp, Netherlands

The family Dings has been a family run vegetable growing business since 1959. Now owner Jac Dings, manages the daily operations of this innovative enterprise with three hectares of greenhouses and has been growing cucumbers for over 25 years. In 2008, Dings started to grow on the high wire system.

LEDinterlighting

results in a more vital and strongerplant...”

- Jac Dings, Owner, Gerja BV

The challenge

For many years, Dings and other members of the growers’ cooperative Kompany have been looking at adding extra light within high wire crops to improve results. Dings says, “We grow in an older greenhouse that is actually just too low (4.5 meters) to use HPS. The HPS lamps heat the crop too much, the fixtures come to close to the plants and spreading of the light is not good enough.

The right lighting

“It turned out that LED interlighting was the best solution,” says Dings. The deciding factor for him was the added value for the plant. “LED interlighting results in a more vital and stronger plant, something I have seen for myself at fellow Jac Dings, Owner, Gerja BV growers in Poland” The Philips GreenPower LED interlighting installation spans 7,500 square meters of highwire cultivation area. Two lines of LED interlighting have been installed in between the crop, and count for 88 micromol/m2/s.

Dings says, “With the LED interlighting we will be able to improve the quality of our cultivation practices. We will not use it to start our production earlier, but rather as a support tool to improve the quality and the production. It brings more balance in the crop and a more consistent production.

Furthermore, the extra light from the LEDs will also have a positive impact on the shelf life of the fruits and will possibly also contribute to the taste experience. Dings is able to ‘read a plant’ like no one else, and his experience will play a crucial role in the development and use of LED technology in cucumber cultivation in the world.